Charlton

The school I do most of my work in at present is in a place called Charlton. It's part of the London Borough of Greenwich, which is one of the most historic parts of Greater London.

Charlton is best known to most people for its football team, Charlton Athletic. The team used to be welcomed on to the ptich with the song, "When the red, red robin comes bob-bob-bobbing along" - not good for young men's street cred! Their new stadium replaces one of the biggest and most barren football grounds the league ever knew, where a pile of discarded corrugated iron could be mistaken for new toilets.
Charlton House is a Jacobean mansion, built in 1607-12. The exterior is splendid (though the windows are pretty crap), but inside it's been stripped of just about every period feature, and is used for public functions and local council meetings and courses.

Several years ago I saw a programme on TV about a senior member of The Society For Psychical Research (a legitimate ghostbuster) who was trying to test out the stories of ghosts at Charlton House. He spent the night in the Great Hall, in the pitch dark, but with a camera running. Suddenly there was a loud bang. In subdued light we saw a cup, shattered on the floor. It sounded as if it had been thrown down hard and from quite a height, but the pieces were very close together. It was very strange. One of the house's staff was recorded on camera as saying it was not familiar to her.

She was someone I went to school with, and when I next saw her, I asked her about it. The cup had been identified as coming from inside the house, but not from anywhere near where it was smashed. No-one could account for it...